Holdings Listings-

• Photographer or Collection Name
• North Dakota Cities and Towns
• Minnesota Cities and Towns
• Fargo, N.D.
• Portraits
• Digital Horizons
• NDSU Institutional Repository (Do term searching of photograph collection finding aids)

The Institute for Regional Studies photography collection contains over 100,000 prints, negatives and color transparencies. The majority have been processed and indexed, and are open for research use. These photographs document a broad variety of scenes and topics related to North Dakota and its people. There are rich photographic holdings documenting the settlement of the Northern Great Plains and the agricultural economy upon which it depended. Social events and the people who settled the region are also portrayed in numerous collections.

The Institute for Regional Studies is eager to hear from anyone who may have additional information regarding an image featured on our site. We also invite copyright owners who are not properly identified to contact us so that appropriate information may be provided in the future.

Access

The best access is gained through the expertise of the archives staff who know more about the Institute’s photography collection than ever can be provided through print and electronic finding aids. We encourage researchers to contact the staff about their image requirements before visiting the Institute.

The Institute for Regional Studies is a member of the Digital Horizons consortium. Its goal is to provide easy access to digital images and other materials through a searchable database that includes digital images and descriptive information for each image. Currently over 4,000 images from the Institute’s collections are included and additional images are added weekly.

Consult the Holdings Listing links above to access finding aids and other listings to individual photograph collections.  There are separate listings for photographer or collection name, North Dakota cities and towns, Minnesota city and towns and portraits. In addition over 125 collections are also described on the NDSU Libraries online catalog.

Other Resources

Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920
Over 900 images from the Institute’s F. A. Pazandak and Fred Hultstrand photograph collections are part of the Library of Congress’ American Memory. Full cataloging and introductory text are included.

Fargo Photographers
Institute staff have done extensive research on Fargo’s many photographers, spaning from the first photographer to open a studio in 1879 up to 1979. This site includes an alphabetical listing of all photographers and studios, biographical information, portraits of the photographers, and a chronological listing.

Contact Information

Consult our Contact Us page.